Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Mayfair Hotel

or "Hotel Mayfair", depending on the year. Ross at St. Paul

The Mayfair Hotel opened in March 1927. It was a ten-story building with 132 and 18 apartments. Tucker & McQueen were the contractors, owners and builders, and Jack Tucker managed the joint. It was built of reinforced concrete, and the front was a red-patterned brick with stone trim. Too bad you can't see details of the front facade. The sky garden depicted on this old postcard looks interesting though.

The hotel was a quiet family-type place, the kind of place a woman traveling to Dallas alone in the "olden times" could be safe in. Many apartments had full kitchen facilities and some guests lived there full time. In the beginning the place got a lot of show business folks who would sing and perform for the rest of the guests in the lobby. Real friendly and homey.

As more larger hotels popped up, and as motels proliferated, people just wanted a room for the night and business fell off. The owner decided to imitate fancy hotels he'd seen in Las Vegas, and he changed the kitchens in the efficiency apartments into dressing rooms. It helped for awhile, but by the late 1960s the hotel was only about 40% occupied. The Mayfair was slated to close in April 1970, with all of its furnishings to be sold.